City on the Hill
by The Councilors
Summary: Even in the wizarding world there is such a thing as normal students and a normal school day.
1. Prolouge

Spider: Hello all and welcome to the beginning of what should be a major story project, City on the Hill. Now we're pretty much required to do a disclaimer here so I'll say that we don't own Harry Potter or his universe, but we do own all the original characters running around our version of that universe.

SarahJoy: We don't own the port key but will be using it on occasion for our characters to move around. It gets cold in boston, sometimes brooms just ain't cool.

Spider: What are you talking about? Brooms are always cool.

SarahJoy: Cool, like fun sure, but outside in the cold...too cool in the heat sense to be cool in the oh yeah sense.

Spider: Well what do you think all those cloaks and scarfs are for?

SarahJoy: Oh fine then. You fly, I'll take the apparation rooms! Which we also don't really totally own.

Spider: Yeah, so anyway, hope you enjoy our first story. Please read and review. Even flame if you like, we use them to heat the school.

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_"We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into City on the Hill. Please confirm your attendance by owl no later than August 6th. Classes begin September 1st, please come prepared with all the necessary books and equipment listed below._

_We hope to hear from you soon."_

"CLARISSA! COME QUICK!" came the bellow from down in the kitchen. Clarissa herself just rolled her eyes as she finished pulling on her shirt. "What could she possibly want on the 10th day of summer vacation?" she mumbled to herself as she came down the stairs for breakfast. She found her mom and dad had almost finished their meals already, hers was sitting untouched at her place waiting for her. "Ohhh..." her father said, finally understanding something in his conversation with his wife. "Well that is good news." Looking up he saw Clarissa sitting down at her place. "Good news pumpkin." "Huh?" "You've been accepted into my old alma mater!" her mom jumped into the conversation, practically bubbling over from joy. "You mean that City on the Hill place? In Massachusetts?" "Yup, that's the one. I know you got accepted into The Emerald City, and I know it would be a bigger change, being so near a big city, but I still think it would do you good to go there, it's such a good school." Looking from one parent to the other and back again, she had to think for just about...30 seconds before responding, "sounds good to me." "Wonderful! Now then, time to take you out school shopping!" Her mother seemed to have forgotten about the as yet barely touched breakfast in front of her daughter and practically pulled her out of the chair towards the door. "But MOM!" she whined the whole way, "It's only JUNE!"

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Meanwhile, in northern NY, the Lymans were having a decidedly different reaction.

"Bill, bill, advertisement, charity...don't we already give to them?...bill, bill ...what's this?" Mr. Lyman pulled out a thick letter, with a loopy, fancy script announcing the addressee as his daughter, Cady. The sender was apparently some place called 'City on the Hill'. "Bah, must be asking for something...she's only eleven, what do they think they'd get?" With that he tosses it in the trash without a second thought and continues sorting the mail.

But then the following day, there it was again, sitting in the mail same as before. "What? They can't be that persistent..." Looking closer at the address, he noticed something rather odd...well, rather scary actually. It was addressed 'Cady Lyman, second floor bedroom, third door on the right.' Not knowing what to make of such a specific, not too mention accurate, description, he decided that maybe he should at least let Cady throw it out. Did have her name on it after all.

"Cady!!" He called up the front stairs. "What is it dad?" came the reply from the kitchen, apparently he hadn't noticed her coming downstairs for breakfast already. "Oh, there you are dear. You know anything about someplace called 'City on the Hill'?" "No, why do you ask?" she continued munching away at her cereal. "Well, you've gotten a letter from them, figure you should at least be allowed to take a look before it gets thrown out. Here." He hands it to her as he passes the table to sit down at his place. Putting down her spoon she picks up the thick envelope and carefully opens it, taking out the 3 sheets and return envelope inside. Reading over the top sheet she starts getting a puzzled look on her face. "Umm... Mom, Dad?...I think you should take a look at this..."

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"Here you are, Taren, you got some more mail today, something I think you've been waiting for."

Taren looked up from his plate to look at the letter Marie had placed beside him. The return address identified the sender as City on the Hill, and he had indeed been expecting it for some weeks now. Naturally his parents weren't here to see this, not that they probably would have cared much if they weren't gallivanting around South America with his little sister at the moment. Still...he had hoped that getting into his parent's alma matter would help count for something with them.

"Thank you Marie, I'll open it later," was all he actually said before continuing his meal. Marie gave a small sigh as she left the dining room to file away the rest of the mail. She always felt sorry for the young master, though of course she wasn't foolish enough to let her employers know that. Taren's parents never paid him much attention, despite his being their oldest child, and while this is what gave her her job as his nanny she did feel they shouldn't neglect him like this. And of course, being the hired help and all she couldn't even help him by being a confidant. She wouldn't mind it, but his upbringing taught him to never show such emotion around servants...or much emotion at all really.

Well, nothing she can really do about it but her job, and so she quietly set about her daily routine as always, though this time she made sure that things were ready and laid out for him to make a trip to the Eppi Center for school supplies. Showing his feelings or not, she knew he was excited about school, and would want to start preparing this very day.


	2. Chapter 1

Spider: Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again, we do not own the world of Harry Potter, just this little niche of it that we've carved out for ourselves. So please, no suing, k?

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"Grandma!" the young boy yelled happily as he shot ahead like a bullet to hug the aforementioned grandparent. Smiling, the elderly woman wrapped him up in a big hug, before passing him off to his grandfather.

"It's nice to see you too dear. It's nice to see all of you again," the last being directed towards Cady, her older brother, and her parents as they caught up to the rest of their family group. Soon enough everyone had gotten their hugs taken care of, which was good, because they only had a few minutes before they'd all have to leave again.

"Thanks so much again Mom, for looking after the boys while we're away."

"Oh it's no trouble at all. We love having any of you over, you know that. You all just have a good time at this open house, and be sure to tell us all about this school when you get back."

"Don't worry, we will. Come on Cady, we better go see about signing you in."

Cady shouldered her duffel bag once more, looking as if she didn't know whether to be more excited or nervous. She and her parents had been through and through how this whole 'City on the Hill' place was probably some kind of elaborate hoax, but she couldn't help hope it was true. After all, to learn actual magic...that's probably every eleven-year-old's dream.

Everyone checked to see they had their bags, and said their good-byes, despite the fact that they only just gave their hellos. Before she could follow after her parents, Cady's older brother reached out to give her hair a brief tussle. "I always said you were the weird one," he whispered with an affectionate wink, "And assuming this school thing is legit, I'm proud of you for it." He gave only one more grin at her, before letting them go their separate ways.

"I still say this could be some huge trick."  
"I know dear I know, but Cady wanted to check it out. Besides, the letter said the sign-in was in the food court, a perfectly public place. Surely they wouldn't try anything so stupid out in the open like this."

"I hope so too. Still, of all the places to hold a check-in for a school open house...you'd think the Prudential Center wouldn't exactly be a normal choice."

"Well, they don't exactly sound like a normal school, do they?"

"I suppose you're right."

The rest of the way through the mall was passed rather quietly, the three of them staying close as the food court came in sight. True enough, there were two tables set out, both with banners saying "CotH sign in", and a large group of kids and parents around them, apparently waiting for something.

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"Marcus!" came the call as a rolled up bundle of orientation schedules rapped him soundly on the head.

"Ow!" came the reply, as the young man in question was startled out of his gazing, rubbing his head lightly, "what did you do that for?"

"You know, the whole idea behind separating you and Alice today was so that you'd both focus on our job, not so that you can stare at each other across the room all day, now pay attention!"

"Oh come on Bronwyn, almost everyone who's coming is already here, it's not like they're all waiting on me to sign them in."

"That's not the point, we're supposed to be making a good impression."

"And your physically abusing me fits into that vision where exactly?"

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past several minutes!"

"Oh...heh...sorry about that..." He put on his semi-apologetic look, complete with a light blush. Bronwyn just sighed and shook her head a bit. As much as she liked her friend Marcus, she did have to wonder how he got picked to help run orientation. Probably cause of how active he was in school social activities. But he really could space out sometimes, especially since his rotten girlfriend Alice was assigned here as well.

She unrolled the schedules again and straightened out her blue-patterned blouse while regaining her composure. He was right, almost everyone who was coming had checked in already, but there were still about five that weren't here yet, and she still intended to represent her school properly. Looking around again, she saw Kelsey was just finishing lecturing Alice for the same thing she had just lectured Marcus on. Still, other than this constant problem, things have been going pretty smoothly with the lot of them, surprising considering how much friction there was between the four of them during the school year. Speaking of, the fifth and last orientation leader, Chavez, seemed to have wisely stepped away for the moment, probably just to use the bathroom but she doubted he felt he was missing out on this arguing.

Before she could risk getting lost in thought, she saw what looked like another of their families coming up, looking a bit wary as they stopped at the check-in desk and momentarily put down their bags.

"Excuse me, is this the right place to meet for the City on the Hill school orientation?" The mother was clearly still skeptical about this whole thing, Bronwyn could hear it in her tone. Still they were used to this sort of thing from muggles.

"Yes, that's right. What's your name please?"

"Lyman."

"Let's see...Lyman...ah yes, Cady is it?"

The girl nodded a bit, "that's me."

"Good good, just sign in right there please...and here's our schedule for the next week or so. We'll be leaving as soon as the last few families arrive, in the meantime you can wait with the rest of the party, over by Alice and Kelsey," she pointed over in their direction, where there was a large group of parents and their kids, all with various bags and suitcases.

"Well at least they picked a decent food court for us to meet at. I do hope the school food is a little better though," said Cady's mother between bites of her salad. They had decided to grab a quick bite as long as they were waiting for the other families to arrive. Seeing all these other people around, some looking just as skeptical as them, some looking excited or well pleased, had helped her relax a bit. Enough to at least stop saying that this could be a hoax.

"I wouldn't worry mom, whatever it is I doubt it'll be worse than my old school food." As Cady finished up her food and went to throw out the trash she couldn't help but wonder about the kinds of things that would be taught at this school. Would she still be able to learn non-magical things? The talk of food had to make her wonder, since she had always hoped to be a great chef when she grew up. Do they even have chefs among wizards, or does magic handle all of that for them? She had so many questions, but hopefully this orientation would be able to answer them. Hopefully she'll like what those answers are.

She went back to the table her family had claimed and sat down quietly, head resting on one hand. Glancing back to the table she was able to catch another family signing in, one that looked pretty comfortable with all of this. Wouldn't be long now, she figured. The young girl that just signed in looked up then, and saw Cady looking in her direction. Smiling, she waved a friendly hello and left her parents behind to come over.

"Hi there, I'm Sarah. Are you here for the orientation too?"

"Hi, yeah I am, my name is Cady. So, um...what do you think about all this?"

"Me? I'm really excited. Grandma's been telling mom and me stories about witches and wizards in the family for years, but we just figured they were fantasies. It's so cool to know she was telling the truth. I never really heard much about any magic schools, but it still sounds like fun to me."

"Yeah, sounds like fun to me too. I just don't know what to expect."

"True, but that's half the fun," she paused, as her parents called for her to join them, "Well, nice meeting you Cady. I'll see you later." With another big smile she ran back over to her parents who were getting their own table.

"Alright everyone, if you could please collect your things and come over here, we can be on our way," Bronwyn called out to the assembled families, and with the help of her fellow orientation leaders it only took a minute or two for everyone to be ready.

"Now, rather than try to take this whole group through the mall at once and risk loosing people in the crowds, we will go in smaller groups. I'll take the first group ahead along with Chavez here," she paused to point to him, "He will then come back to signal the next group, and so on till we're all together again at the main school building. To make things easy, we're making groups by last name, so if your last name falls between A and F, please come up here and we'll be on our way."

Cady watched as several families extricated themselves from the group and went over to form a new knot around Bronwyn and Chavez. She'd probably be in the next group to go, and wondered how long she'd have to wait for him to come back. Then she started wondering just how they were getting to the school. Bus she figured was the most logical way. Vans were also a possibility, but it would take fewer busses considering how many people there were here. It was really the only practical thing.

It only took a little over five minutes for Chavez to make it back to the food court and signal the next leader to step up and call out their group. This time it was the guy who had been sitting at the sign in table. The rather _cute_ guy who had been sitting at the sign in table. "Alright people, the next group will be G through L, so come on down." Cady happily followed suit, and soon enough they were all winding their way through the hustle of the Prudential Center. However, much to her surprise, they didn't make their way for any of the major street exits. In fact, they seemed to be heading for one of the smaller corridors off the main way, the kind that lead to the hotels or apartments next door to the mall. About halfway down the plain white hall, Marcus called for the group to stop. He looked all around, suddenly looking more serious than she had seen him all day, to make sure no one else was around. And surprisingly, no one else was. In fact, in looking around herself, Cady noticed that none of the people shopping on the main way seemed to even notice the side passage. Then Marcus proceeded to open a door in the wall to his left and signaled the group to follow him. Inside it looked a bit like a storage closet, although it was a bit on the large side, and not very full. Once everyone was inside Chavez, who had left with her group as well (no doubt so he could signal the next group as he had hers), closed the door soundly behind him.

"Alright everyone," Marcus started, "I know you're all wondering what we're doing in here. Well, we don't have the time, and this is hardly the place, for a deep discussion on the details of all this, you'll learn about it in your classes anyway, but you're about to get what is no doubt your first exposure to magic. This item here is called a port key,' he indicated a bottle of spray cleaner on the table next to him. "This will take us all to our main hall in our main school building at City on the Hill. It's very simple to work, which is the main reason, other than that it's convenient for us, that we use these for orientation. All you do is touch it, and since I know you all either don't believe me or won't think it's safe, I'm going to go first so you'll see how it's done, and then wait for you all to come through. Chavez here is staying behind to make sure you all get through all right. So, now that the explanation is done, let's go!"

Without any more rambling, and it was clear from his tone he had been required to say all that, he reached down and touched the bottle, vanishing into thin air. Cady couldn't help but join in the general reaction of shock and a little awe at this, while some people almost immediately started trying to figure out the illusion instead. Still, whatever the reactions, Chavez set about calmly settling people down again, and worked his way to the front of the group by the port key. "Now now everyone," he said softly, "As Marcus said this is all perfectly safe. So please, if someone could step up and be next, the sooner we get you all through the sooner we can continue the orientation."

There wasn't exactly a rush to go and try this. Or rather, there might have been if most of the parents in the room weren't holding their kids back, who all thought this was the coolest thing they ever saw. So, being close to the front of the group, Cady looked up at her parents in question. They looked at each other first, then both just nodded quietly back to Cady. So it was that the first family of their group to arrive after Marcus, was the Lymans.

All three of them were temporarily disoriented, as would be expected. Cady was the first to recover though, and looked around at the huge room in front of her with awe. Nearby, Marcus watched her with a bit of a grin. "Welcome to City on the Hill."


	3. Chapter 2

SaraJoy: You forgot quite a bit in your disclaimer last chapter, Spider. Namely reviews! (BTW thanks to our reviewers! You guys are great, and we have started reading your stories and will have our own review in soon. You rock.) We need to remind people or maybe they will stop. Have you thought about that? So yeah, as Spider said, we don't own Harry Potter or his world or any of that stuff we got out of the Harry Potter series and accompanying books (hey-we do our research) but we do kinda own City on the Hill and totally own our own characters, even if they would not be possible without those books. And it would indeed be great if J.K. would not sue us, though such an attempt would be fruitless, as we are all college students/recent graduates/some form of poor starving creatures…

Oh, almost forgot! Ok, last thing. Very important. We also don't own John Simmons or the names of the houses. John Simmons was the founder of our college and The Man! So really no one owns him, and Simmons owns some of the other stuff I guess, but this is all good stuff about him so it's all good right? Please no one sue us, really.

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It took about twenty minutes or so for all of the new students and their families to finish assembling into the huge hall they had been brought to. Truth be told it was really more expansive than anything else. The ceiling was high but only about 10 or 11 feet, but the whole room looked like it could hold at least a thousand people or more at once, which led Cady to believe it was used anytime the whole school needed to gather at once. Looking over at her mom in the seat next to her, Cady couldn't help but whisper, "Well, I think it's finally safe to say this isn't a hoax…"

Her mom barely had the time to look back at her daughter before there was a call for quiet from the front of the room, where the five orientation leaders were set up behind a long table.

"Now that we're all settled in, I'd finally like to formally welcome you all to City on the Hill," began Bronwyn, who so far had done almost all the talking today. She took a slight pause to brush her long braid of brown hair back over her shoulder, and proceed to fix the set of her flat silver necklace with one hand while setting some note cards on the table in front of her with the other. "My name is Bronwyn Rhian Finch, and I have the honor of being this year's head orientation leader. This doesn't mean I'll be the only person talking this whole week, but it does mean I'll be giving you a very brief introduction to wizarding history and primarily how the Three Cities, that is the three American wizarding schools, fit into it. And mind you when I say brief, I mean _brief_. The new students here will be learning the long version in their First Year History class, and can no doubt pass on the best bits too all you parents.

"Wizarding as we understand it originated in Europe somewhere around 300 BC, that's right BC. Granted it took a fair amount of that early time to develop to it's know state. Originally, witches and wizards did not try to hide their abilities from those without magic, but over time, a combination of people pestering for magical favors, and eventual persecution by many sects, encouraged earlier wizards to withdraw from the view of 'muggles', which is our term for people without magical talent. Since then, the wizarding community takes great care to avoid muggles knowing about us, as a group at least. Obviously muggle relatives of witches and wizards can be an exception, as long as they understand the need for secrecy. Among the most logical restrictions this secrecy requires is that all magic not be preformed outside of the wizarding community, and no interfering in muggle matters…which I might add is the only reason the Sox haven't broken their so called 'curse' yet, as far as we're concerned." She paused again and smiled, as there were a few scattered laughs at that observation from the Bostonians in the group.

"To jump ahead a few centuries, we come to the first emigrations of English witches and wizards to the 'New World'. The first émigrés to America did not, as far as we know, include anyone from the European wizarding community, though it should be noted that the Native Americans did have their own flavor of magical arts that has long since been incorporated into our magic as well our school's curriculum. The first European wizards came over on later voyages to the developing New England colonies, particularly in what would become the Massachusetts area. At first, it didn't occur to anyone to build any real wizarding schools in America, as it wasn't thought that the population would grow large enough to support the decision. But as more people slowly trickled across the Atlantic, muggles and wizards alike, a few individuals with a lot of foresight started to seriously consider the idea. One of these people was our founder, John Simmons.

"Mr. Simmons was a man of high ideals, and like many people thought back then, hoped that a new continent would lead to a chance to escape from the harsh persecutions of the Old World. Naturally, such thoughts lead to the idea of a school that embraced individual differences and the kind of friendly competitiveness that leads to great ideas. So he began designing the plans for this new school, which he originally planned to hide outside the town of Salem, where he was living at the time. However, he quickly reconsidered his location when the Salem Witch Trials started. While no actual witches or wizards were hunted or condemned, the implications of the Trials was hard to miss, and still are horribly offensive. So, he moved himself and his plans to the starting city of Boston instead, and got the inspiration to name the school City on the Hill, as an inside jab at the Puritans of Salem.

"I will mention here that while the wizarding community did not go through the same revolution the muggle patriots did in the 1700s, we did decide to form a different political sphere after the fact, as we were now citizens of a new country, and felt that we would likely then face different issues than the wizards back in Europe, and so would need a different governing body to handle them. However, the breaking off was friendly, and our relations are still good today.

"For a long time after the founding of City on the Hill, a least a century, we were the only school on the continent. Which made a particular difference once we gained independence. At first there were not many complaints, largely because of the limited space to work with. So, wizards from the Southern areas of the new US simply kept their grumbling over the location and the difference in sensibilities, to themselves. All this changed however, with the Louisiana Purchase. With so much new and unsettled land suddenly available, the South decided it was finally time to found their own school, which is now outside of present day New Orleans. The school eventually took the name City of the Night, in reference to it's affiliated city.

"Now, this still leaves our third 'city' unaccounted for. Over the years, as more and more territory was opened up to America, it started to become obvious that at least one more main school would be needed. But, deciding when it would be needed was a big question. The west was indeed filling up, but not primarily with wizards, who were mostly content to stay where they were. So it took until the late 1800s for the school to finally be built. However, it did take another few years for the pioneering wizards to come up with an official name for their school. Wanting to stay in the theme that had been started of naming our schools for cities, they finally found what they thought was the perfect name in the year 1900. From the famous book by L. Frank Baum, they took the name of Emerald City, and have naturally retained a slight reputation for light hearted-ness ever since." Finally, with a deep breath of relief, Bronwyn stopped talking and took a sip from a glass of water next to her place at the table.

"There, now that all that is out of the way, back to our own school. Taking a page from his old school back in England, the famous Hogwarts Academy, John Simmons decided to create several different dormitories, or Houses, into which his students would be placed by virtue of the strengths of their character. Which finally brings me to the reason there are specifically five of us here as orientation leaders. Each one of us represents one of the five Houses at this school, and we all will give you a bit of an introduction to ourselves and our Houses. So, I can finally stop talking and pass things off to Kelsey there on the end. Kelsey?" With a light smile she plopped back into her chair, while the fair, dark haired boy on the far right of the table stood up.

"Thank you, Bronwyn, we'll see how long a break we can give you. As you just heard, my name is Kelsey. Kelsey David Stuart. It's my job this week to give you some more detail about the classes available at our school, but as for right now, I am a fifth year student here at CotH as well as a prefect, and I'm here to represent Arnold Hall. We Arnoldians are best known at the school for our competitive team spirits. Most of us are involved in some form of competitive sport or hobby; I myself am the captain and center fielder for our baseball club. Still, some of us only compete against our own expectations, feeling a drive to succeed. For this we're also sometimes called dreamers, as our goals have been known to outreach our grasps from time to time. But what matters most to us is that we try for our goals, you know, at least trying to shoot for the moon before settling for the stars." Deciding he was finished, and looking a little chafed under a perceived need to put on a perfect front for his Hall, Kelsey sat back down, flashing a bit of a look to the next speaker as she stood up, a confident smirk seemingly plastered to her face.

"My name is Alice Marie Linden, and I'm here to represent Smith Hall. Unlike Kelsey, the rest of us, myself included, are sixth years, and I am proud to say I am the head of WIMS, Witches in Math and Science. Also, I'll be taking charge of things on the last day of our orientation, and take you all down to our shopping district to help you to start purchasing your school supplies. While each of our Halls are unique in the qualities we look for in our members, there are occasional crossovers. Like Arnold we in Smith Hall also prize a need to succeed. Though this has given us a rather undeserved bad reputation. We are ambitious people, but don't misunderstand, we aren't cheaters. Cheating does nothing to prove yourself better than anyone else, but we aren't afraid of playing a little hardball if that's what's needed. We're the people who know what we want, and go out and get it. Also, we're probably best known for our steel-strong bonds of hall loyalty. If you're a member of Smith, you're part of the Smith family network, and most graduates from our hall often maintain those connections long after they've left CotH behind." Having finished her rather up front view of her hall, Alice moved to sit down, gesturing and flashing a quick flirtatious wink at Marcus, who was sitting on the other side of Bronwyn.

As he rose, Marcus returned Alice's wink with a quick smirk, and turned to face the assembly properly. "My name is Marcus Caesar. As Alice said I'm a sixth year, I'm a member of Dix Hall, and I'll be talking to you later this week about the various clubs and social activities here at CotH. Being a Dixie I'm not really much on formality, unlike the rest of us up here, which says a lot about us. We're sometimes called slackers, and daydreamers, but quite frankly none of us care much. We pride ourselves on being entirely our own people. Most of us are artists, or writers, or dancers, or musicians, or just people with really weird hobbies. We tend to be more laid back, because of our creative bent, though there are always a few who surprise the rest of us by being a bit more 'grounded'. But hey, that's cool too. After all, it would be boring if we could be so easily stereotyped," and with a lighthearted shrug, he plopped back down in his chair, the only clue for the next speaker to rise and continue the introductions.

"Well, I'm not nearly the end of many speeches for the week, so I'll try to make this one short," The dark-haired teen swept his eyes over a room full of captivated young female and twitchy male muggle-borns, half of whom wanted to stay and take everything in, and half run off and explore. "My name is Chavez McMurray and again, I am a sixth year here. Later this week I will tell you about everyone's favorite part of school", he went on with half-enthusiasm, "Tests! All right, now when you are done groaning I will begin today's topic, namely Mesick House. Now, what you will probably hear the most is that Mesick's are the pushovers, the 'nice guys', and those who would do anything to help you out. I'm not sayin' we're nasty or anything, we are indeed quite nice. But don't ever try to get one of us to do your homework. We're not gonna do it, it's wicked annoying, and if you want it to be right, you should head on over to Dix hall anyway, they may actually know what's going on. Seriously, though, we are associated with being loyal, and we are; loyal to our house, our school, and our friends. Those of you who should be here really depends on why you want to be here. If you're looking for a friendly house, and someone who'll watch your back, but in a nice way," he said with a wink he aimed at Alice, "this is probably your place. My suggestion is to pay attention during your tour and see which place feels right. Sometimes, like with many aspects of magic, it finds you before you find it before you find it."

As Chavez finished and sat down, Bronwyn stood up once again, "Alright, guess it's my turn again then," Bronwyn said as she stood up again. "I've already introduced myself by name, so now I'll introduce myself by House. I'm here representing Evan's Hall for the week, and apart from being orientation leader I'll also be taking you out later in the week for your first flying lesson. Yes, that's right, flying lesson. And at the same time I'll be explaining our flying sports. I'm afraid we poor Evans students have earned a reputation for being rather dull. We're not competition oriented like Arnold or Smith, and we're not as eclectic a group as Dix is. We aren't even particularly well known for being kind or caring. That's because Evans is a place for well grounded, practical, thoughtful students. Much to the surprise of our classmates we do actually have dreams we want to follow, but we're more practical about it than most of the others. Since this means we tend create B plans for most things, so we can normally be counted on if something starts going south. You could say we're something like the old tortoise from the fable, 'slow and steady wins the race' and all of that kind of good advice."

Taking another pause to catch her breath and sip her water, Bronwyn put on another big smile. "Now the part you've all been waiting for. When we shut up and move on with the rest of today's orientation!" After a bit of scattered chuckles from both the visitors and the orientation table, she continued on, "As you can see on your programs, it's now time for the tour of the grounds. We'll be splitting you up into the same groups that you were in to get here to take you around the school building and show you a bit of the grounds. We won't be showing you the dormitories yet, as that is where you will all be sleeping over this week. So, after the main tours are all finished, we'll meet back here for some dinner, and split up one last time to take you to your rooms to relax, unpack, and let all of today sink in. All right, that's more than enough speeches out of me. As through Fs again, if you'd stand up and follow me, we'll get going."

"Well, I must say, I'm sure you would do wonderfully in a house like Evans. That is, of course, if you decide to stay. I do think we should still consider all options." Cady was semi-listening to what her parents were saying, but was mostly distracted by her own thoughts on the subject. She came to as she heard her father say,

"Ah, yes. Cady, I'm sure you would do wonderfully and get great grades no matter which house you chose, but it might be nice to have the girls from Evans on your side and there to help if you need it."

"Ummm, yeah," Cady said less than enthusiastically, "I guess so. That could be nice..."

"Or," her father chimed in again, "What about Arnold? It seems as though you'd make some strong connections there." Cady thought about this, completely puzzled. What am I worrying about, she thought to herself, if I do decide to come here (though she was pretty sure she'd decided to stay), I have at least a week to make this decision.

"I know!" Her father exclaimed excitedly, "We can make a list of the pros and cons of each house and you can pick empirically! What do you say, honey, do you want to try that?" Cady had to laugh. Her father could be so geeky when he went into analysis mode but, she had to admit, it was nice to have a base to start from in making a decision for something that was so new to her.

"Are you ok Honey?" Cady's mother asked her daughter, looking puzzledly at her"

"Hmmm? Yeah fine" Cady answered, she had been completely unaware that she had stopped paying attention. "Just thinking... and I think that I'm gonna go to bed now. Night Mom, Night Dad." Truth be told, Cady would not actually go to sleep for another couple of hours. Instead she would lie awake trying to decide if all she had seen was true. She wondered if her parents even truly believed it themselves. She decided to accept it for now and move onto the next part that worried her. How would she manage to stay that far from her parents for so long? She had never been away for more than a week before. Those weeks were always spent with her grandparents. Always near family.

She didn't want to lose such an opportunity either. It was an amazing place, with moving staircases, halls that had more doors than she could count, and all kinds of other things that only happened in movies. Her mind raced as she tried to imagine if she'd fit in at any of the houses. The last thought in her mind before she finally drifted off was maybe I could just pick the house with my favorite colors...


End file.
